Schools have big budgets and get millions of dollars from the federal government and state governments, an amount of money that can tempt the most sincere and well-meaning person. It can seem so easy to cut a teeny corner there and plump this account over here. Or to hand out enormous contracts to 1-month old companies. Just like high-stakes standardized testing linked to punishment [closing a school is a punishment, firing principals is punishment, firing teachers is punishment, tearing down a school is punishment] can lead adults to cheat in any way they think they can get away with.

And sometimes charters do not see themselves as public entities but as “free” entities, free of any scrutiny or law or public expectation. And too often—too often because it should be rare—those meant to supervise and assess have had so much privatization Kool-Aid they forget that privatized does not mean perfected.